Gilligan comes out fighting after Hutton drubbing

Claire Cozens
Wednesday January 28, 2004

Andrew Gilligan today came out fighting with a statement issued on his behalf describing Lord Hutton's report as "grossly one- sided".

He is struggling to hold on to his BBC career after Lord Hutton issued a damning criticism of his Today programme report, describing the central claim that the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as "unfounded".

In what amounted to a complete demolition of Gilligan's controversial report. Lord Hutton cast doubt on the "sexing up" claim and rejected as "unfounded" the allegation that the infamous 45-minute claim had been inserted at the request of the government.

However, the National Union of Journalists, which represented Gilligan, today hit out at the report's conclusions.

"Whatever Lord Hutton may think, it is clear from the evidence he heard that the dossier was 'sexed up', that many in the intelligence services were unhappy about it, and that Andrew Gilligan's story was substantially correct," said Jeremy Dear, the president of the NUJ, which is representing Gilligan.

"The report is selective, grossly one-sided and a serious threat to the future of investigative journalism".

By focusing his conclusions almost exclusively on Gilligan's unscripted 6.07am report on the Today programme on May 29, Lord Hutton has exceeded the Today reporter's worst fears.

Gilligan admitted during the inquiry he "unwittingly and unintentionally" gave listeners the wrong impression about whether the intelligence was real or made up when he said the government "probably knew" the 45-minute figure was wrong.

But he changed the wording for subsequent reports, and has always stood by the central claim that the intelligence community was unhappy about government attempts to influence the wording of the dossier.

Mr Dear said today that from Gilligan's 19 broadcasts on the morning of May 29 Lord Hutton had taken "a single sentence barely noticed at the time and has used it to condemn the entire story".

The NUJ president added Lord Hutton had "taken an unwarranted sideswipe at Andrew Gilligan's note-taking, when other reporters recorded David Kelly as saying very similar things".

In his report, Lord Hutton referred to the "uncertainties arising from Mr Gilligan's evidence", and said the two sets of notes he made of his conversation with Dr Kelly made it impossible to say for sure what had been said.

Crucially, Lord Hutton said he did not believe the dossier had been "sexed up", as Gilligan reported Dr Kelly as saying.

He said the BBC's listeners would have interpreted this to mean the "intelligence set out in the dossier was unfounded", something he didn't believe to be true.

Lord Hutton's conclusions appear to confirm Gilligan's worst fears and the reporter has been embroiled in meetings with the NUJ in an effort to shore up his position since receiving his copy of the report last night.

Today Mr Dear called on the BBC's governors to "stand firm, defend their reporter and the essential truth of their story", and warned that the corporation could face an industrial dispute if it sacked or disciplined Gilligan.

The former Sunday Telegraph journalist has told friends he would prefer to rebuild his career at the BBC but that if he was sidelined he would think carefully about writing a book based on his experiences and return to print journalism.

A similar issue to be aware of - the High Court are threatening to send two Channel 4 journalists to prison for refusing to reveal the identity of sources to the official enquiry into Bloody Sunday. The sources are presumed to be ex British Army and obviously the enquiry wanted to interview them - but unless journalists can keep sources confidential, free speech is undermined. Also it's a bit of a double standard when you compare it to what the legal establishment have said about Kelly.

What did you expect from a man who was appointed to chair the inquiry by Blair's former flat-mate--Lord Falconer? From someone who was counsel for the Parachute regiment at the Widgery Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1971--an inquiry that is now recognised by everyone as a thoroughly discredited whitewash? So much so that they had to repeat the exercise with second, on-going inquiry.

It doesn't surprise me that he is also a Mason. He is also part of the POXBRIDGE (Public school + OXBRIDGE) old boys' network looking after one of his own. Well, these establishment types are a pox on society aren't they? Let's call them by their right name.

Read the Stop the War's "Alternative Hutton Report" to get the truth.

 http://www.stopwar.org.uk/release.asp?id=200104

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Hutton's Biographical details:

Rt Hon the Lord Hutton
Hutton (Life Baron), (James) Brian (Edward) Hutton; cr1997

Born:
29 June 1931

Education:
Shrewsbury School

Further Education:
Balliol College, Oxford (BA jurisprudence 1953);
Queen's University, Belfast

Career:
Called to Northern Ireland Bar 1954;
Junior Counsel to Attorney-General for Northern Ireland 1969;
Queen's Counsel (NI) 1970;
Judge of the High Court of Justice (NI) 1979-88;
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland 1988-97;
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 1997-

I agree with Molly. As as student in today's "Independent" said: Oxbridge has always had a bad record on working-class access. The vote on top-up fees yesterday will make it worse. It will just have the cream of society - rich, thick and full of clots--people like Blair and Hutton.